■ • M.  o\ 


HISTORY  AND  PHILOSOPHY 


—OF  THE — 


I "‘-N, 

° 1 , 1 

EIGHT-HOUR  MOVEMENT 


By  Lemuel  Danryid. 


PUBLICATION  OF  THE 

American  Federation  of  Labor, 

21  CLINTON  PLACE,  N.  Y.  CITY. 


EIGHT-HOUR  SERIES  No.  3. 


Copyright  1889,  by  Samuel  Gompers. 


J,  ssa.ia 

| D 


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HISTORY  AND  PHILOSOPHY 


OF  THE 


EIGHT-HOUR  MOVEMENT 


By  LEMUEL  DANRYID. 


The  annual  report  of  the  Commissioner 
of  Labor  of  the  United  States  for  1886  fur- 
nishes material  for  very  serious  reflection 
to  all  who  have  an  interest  in  the  prosper- 
ity of  the  people.  The  fact  has  been  ap- 
parent for  some  time  that  all  the  great 
nations  of  Europe,  with  the  United  States, 
were  developing  manufactures  far  beyond 
the  power  of  home  consumption,  with  a 
million  able-bodied  men  here  in  enforced 
idleness,  and  a similar  percentage  abroad, 
and  that  in  all  alike  a period  of  depression 
had  been  fairly  entered,  which  rendered  the 
producing  classes  more  miserable,  their 
future  darker,  their  strength  sooner  ex- 
hausted through  increase  of  tension,  and 
consequently  danger  to  the  State  more 
imminent.  “If  each  of  these  great  com- 
munities,” remarks  the  Commissioner, 
“has  reached  an  industrial  condition  in- 
volving phases  common  to  all,  there  must 
be  somewhere  a line  of  reason  for  such 
universal  condition,  and  one  should  be 
able  to  develop  the  logical  course  of  events 
which  has  brought  such  a wide  range  of 
States  to  an  industrial  epoch.”  Let  ours  be 
the  task  to  follow  the  guiding  hand  of  his- 
tory and  philosophy,  and  see  if  we  cannot 
reach  this  desired  end. 

The  United  States  already  prides  itself 
on  being  the  great  commercial  rival  of 
England,  and  France  has  so  increased  her 
productive  capacity  within  recent  years 
that  she  also  no  longer  finds  the  home 
market  adequate  for  consumption,  and 
seeks  abroad  for  new  colonies  to  prevent 


more  serious  disaster  at  home  from  her 
unemployed  proletaires.  Germany,  intox- 
icated with  the  immense  sum  drawn  from 
France  after  the  Franco-Prussian  war, 
stimulated  the  speculative  fever  to  the 
highest  pitch,  overstocked  itself  with  ma- 
chinery and  manufacturing  plant,  and  now 
is  looking  abroad  for  an  outlet  for  the  sur- 
plus. Belgium  has  also  increased  the 
limit  of  production.  Holland  finds  her 
great  public  works  completed  and  inter- 
national communication  well  established. 
Italy  and  Spain,  slowly  awakening  from 
their  slumber  of  centuries  to  realize  the 
needs  of  the  moment,  have  their  great 
railway  arteries  meeting  all  demands,  yet 
capital  annually  yields  a smaller  revenue. 
Austria  and  Turkey  have  as  many  roads  as 
business  requires,  and  manufactures  there, 
as  elsewhere,  are  the  only  means  left  for  in- 
vestment amid  general  depression  and  in- 
ability to  increase  consumption,  to  day  the 
great  desideratum  of  all  manufacturing 
nations. 

The  high-tariff  act  of  Germany  in  1879, 
to  “promote  manufacturing  enterprise,” 
led  to  similar  measures  in  Russia,  Italy, 
Austria,  Turkey,  and  even  Switzerland, 
thus  having  the  double  effect  of  increasing 
domestic  competition  and  restrictingexport 
trade.  Russia,  not  content  with  fighting 
for  midland  Asia  and  watching  her  chance 
to  reach  the  Dardanelles,  is  busy  at  home 
making  it  unpleasant  for  Prussians,  who 
have  largely  invested  their  capital  there  in 
mining  production.  Yet  in  all  these  coun- 


r 


2.61 


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4 


trie’s  '-m'ilfibns  are  foiling:*  exhaustively  long 
hours,- and.  other  millions  {dead  in  vain  but 
for  a sirpilar "boon  !#.  , *- 

Great  Britain  and  ; Belgium,  retaining 
theif,  low-ta.rfjrf  policies,  yet  finding  them- 
selves similarly'  circumstanced,  it  cannot 
be  said  that  our  quadrennial  political  buga- 
boo of  the  “tariff  question”  has  caused 
this  wide-spread,  international  depression  ; 
both  free- trade  and  protective  countries 
are  alike  suffering,  none  from  their  pet  com- 
mercial system  deriving  advantages  over 
another,  for  the  Commissioner  says  : 

“All  these  nations  now  find  themselves  in  sympathy  in 
their  distress,  all  seeking  outlets  for  their  surplus  produc- 
tions. The  scale  of  wages  for  the  countries  named  is 
according  to  the  following  order,  the  highest  first:  United 
States,  Great  Britain,  France,  Belgium,  Germany.  It  is 
difficult  to  connect  commercial  systems  with  this  scale  of 
wages,  and  when  the  broad  view  is  taken  that  each  of 
these  countries  has  overstocked  itself  with  machinery  and 
manufacturing  plant  far  in  advance  0f  the  wants  of  pro- 
duction, and  when  it  is  considered  also  that  the  present 
period  of  industrial  depression  is  unique  in  its  character, 
as  not  having  been  attended  with  financial  and  commer- 
cial crises  and  panics,  financial  matters  having  only  been 
incidentally  involved  ; and  when  it  is  considered  further 
that  the  condition  of  these  nations  has  been  reached  under 
both  free-trade  and  protective  policies  and  under  a wide 
range  of  tariff  restrictions,  it  is  readily  seen  that  the 
family  of  nations  given  to  mechanical  production  has 
reached  an  epoch  in  its.  existence,  and  that  commercial 
systems  which  might  have  been  at  one  time  or  under 
some  circumstances  necessities,  are  now  apparently  only 
expediencies,  to  be  used  temporarily  and  not  as  perma- 
nent features  of  national  progress.  * * * If  all  the  pro- 
ducing nations  of  the  world  succeed  in  supplying  them- 
selves with  manufactured  products,  as  they  are  so  largely 
doing,  and  in  many  cases  have  succeeded  in  doing,  and 
then  all  seek  relief,  which  comes  from  selling  their  surplus 
products  at  low  rates  to  their  neighbors,  the  world  has  in- 
deed reached  an  industrial  epoch , and  governmental 
policies  and  the  rules  of  political  economy  must  be 
changed  to  meet  the  new  conditions  resulting  from  the 
arrival  of  a novel  industrial  period." 

From  these  grave  and  official  conclu- 
sions, so  plainly  put,  we  may  draw  the  fol- 
lowing deductions : 

1.  All  the  great  manufacturing  nations 
of  the  world  are  involved  in  similar  indus- 
trial distress,  and  proceeding  from  the 
same  causes. 

2.  The  question  of  high  or  low  tariff  has 
not  entered  as  a determining  cause  thereof. 

3.  That  the  scale  of  wages  in  the  coun- 
tries mentioned  is  graduated  very  nearly 
the  same,  as  efforts  have  been  made  therein 
to  shorten  the  hours  of  labor. 

4.  That  neither  “governmental  policies” 


nor  “ political  economy  ” are  able  to  meet 
the  new  requirements. 

5.  That  the  crying  evil  in  each  country 
is  not  want  of  productive  power,  but  the 
lack  of  consumptive  ability  ; in  other  words, 
it  is  the  old  problem  stated  by  Carlyle  : 
“thirty  thousand  idle  needle-women  in 
London  and  millions  of  shirtless  backs  I’’ 

The  question  then  is  how  to  increase 
consumption,  and  thus  furnish  not  only  in- 
creased production,  but  a happier  and 
more  contented  people. 

We  have  forever  passed  out  of  those 
phases  of  national  life  when  forms  of  faith 
or  forms  of  government  divided  cabinets 
and  peoples  into  hostile  camps.  The  heavy 
tones  of  dogmatic  'dispute  and  the  valiant 
defenders  of  divine  right  and  representa- 
tive government  no  longer  claim  the  pub- 
lic ear.  These  are  recognized  as  issues 
outgrown,  and  to  discuss  them  now  is  but 
to  thresh  last  century’s  straw.  The  great 
issues  of  this  century,  on  the  contrary, 
have  been  distinctly  economic.  And  no- 
where has  this  been  more  manifest  than  is 
to  be  seen  in  the  history  of  the  short-time 
movement.  It  stands  forth  on  both  sides 
of  the  Atlantic  as  a herald  of  peace,  offer- 
ering  the  olive  branch  of  hope  to  both  con- 
tending factions  in  the  industrial  warfare 
the  ever  upward  progresss  of  man  has  be- 
queathed to  our  century.  Even  as  the 
century  opened,  with  a wide-spread  mili- 
tancy regnant  in  Europe,  the  peaceful  spirit 
of  its  antagonist,  industrialism,  was  surg- 
ing to  the  front. 

Space  will  permit  but  a mere  epitome  ot 
the  historical  events  incorporated  in  the 
course  of  this  movement  for  less  hours, 
which  already  fills  several  volumes.  Many 
still  deem  the  movement  in  America  of  re- 
cent growth,  but  as  far  back  as  1806  we 
have  an  authenticated  instance  of  organ- 
ized ship-builders  and  caulkers  in  New 
York  City  asking  fora  reduction  from  four- 
teen to  ten  hours  a day.  Unlike  the  move- 
ment then  assuming  headway  in  England, 


5 


this  was  not  a plea  for  women  and  chil- 
dren only,  but  a sturdy  demand  for  them- 
selves. Their  employers  were  astounded 
at  such  a demand,  and  with  solemn  indig- 
nation the  merchants  of  New  York  re- 
solved that  such  a trade  “ combination  has 
a direct  tendency  to  put  their  business  into 
other  hands,  or  to  seriously  injure  it  by  re- 
ducing ship-owners  to  repair  their  vessels 
elsewhere  rather  than  submit  to  the  incon- 
veniences, delays  and  vexations  to  which 
they  would  be  exposed  when  they  can  ob- 
tain labor  only  at  such  times  and  on  euch 
conditions  as  the  folly  and  caprice  of  a few 
journeymen  mechanics  may  dictate,  who 
are  now  idle  two  or  three  of  the  most  valu- 
able hours  of  the  day.’*  Whereupon  these 
patriotic  merchants,  who  deemed  the 
achievement  of  political  liberty  the  term 
of  social  progress,  determined  to  black-list 
every  member  of  the  union  audaciously 
asking  for  a reduction  of  the  hours  of  labor 
from  fourteen  to  ten.  Several  years  passed 
before  marked  success  attended  the  spora- 
dic efforts  which  followed.  In  Boston, 
May,  1832,  the  carpenters  and  caulkers 
struck  for  ten  hours  and  lost,  but  in  that 
and  the  year  following  the  same  trades 
were  successful  in  New  York  and  Philadel- 
phia. 

After  this  the  movement  for  ten  hours 
became  so  general  that  in  April,  1840, 
President  Van  Buren  by  proclamation  es- 
tablished ten  hours  as  the  normal  work 
day  in  all  navy  yards  and  arsenals  of  the 
government.  This  gave  it  such  standing 
that  in  the  following  year  Governor  Fort  of 
New  Jersey  recommended  shortening  the 
hours  of  daily  labor  in  his  message,  see- 
ing even  then  that  “constant  and  unre- 
mitting toil  prevents  intellectual  improve- 
ment and  leads  to  physical  and  moral  de- 
basement.” Labor  parties  had  already 
arisen  in  the  Eastern  States,  in  which  this 
measure  occupied  a prominent  plank.  In 
the  same  year,  1841,  the  ten-hour  system 
was  introduced  in  Bath,  Me.,  by  a firm  of 


boat-builders,  and  most  of  the  yards  there 
followed  the  example. 

From  this  time  on  the  movement  steadily 
gained  headway  in  the  large  cities  among 
skilled  artisans,  though  not  in  the  mills. 
On  June  16,  1845,  a large  mass  meeting,  at- 
tended by  5,000  persons,  was  held  at  Pitts- 
burg, Pa.,  for  the  same  purpose,  and  led 
to  similar  action  elsewhere.  In  the  follow- 
ing October  the  first  industrial  convention 
in  this  country  was  convened  at  New  York 
to  organize  concerted  action  toward  the 
same  end.  Mass  meetings  and  strikes  for 
the  ten-hour  system  now  became  very  fre- 
quent, and  in  many  cases  were  successful. 
The  European  uprising  in  1848  naturally 
gave  the  movement  greater  impetus,  and 
the  walls  of  the  old  “cradle  of  liberty,” 
Faneuil  Hall,  again  echoed  to  the  new 
spirit  of  a new  age.  From  1848  onward 
Congress  and  Legislatures  were  annually 
in  receipt  of  petitions  and  memorials  against 
the  employment  of  women  and  children 
over  ten  hours  a day  in  factories,  but  then, 
as  so  many  times  later,  they  were  buried 
in  committees.  But  the  system  was  grad- 
ually gaining  ground,  and  the  old  fourteen- 
hour  stretch  found  but  few  defenders.  Lit- 
tle by  little  hours  had  fallen  to  twelve  and 
eleven  where  the  ten-hour  system  had  not 
yet  prevailed. 

Another  industrial  convention  met  at 
Chicago,  June,  1850,  to  further  solidify  the 
growing  demand.  Such  persistency  was 
not  without  effect,  and  by  1853  eleven 
hours  became  the  general  custom  for  ar- 
tisans. In  some  places  factories  still  ran 
for  more  hours,  but  by  1865  strikes  had 
brought  eleven  hours  as  the  general  maxi- 
mum in  factories. 

After  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  the  return 
of  such  large  numbers  to  industrial  pur- 
suits again  brought  the  question  up  and  in- 
tensified the  antagonism  between  indus- 
trialism against  the  spirit  of  militancy, 
which  our  late  war  did  so  much  to  revive 
and  encourage.  Hardly  was  the  struggle 


6 


of  arms  over  and  its  veterans  back  to 
peaceful  pursuits  than  the  New  England 
Ten-Hour  League  was  organized,  which 
by  the  eloquent  voice  of  Wendell  Phillips 
and  others  proclaimed  the  new  gospel. 
Owing  to  this  agitation  the  State  of  Massa- 
chusetts in  1874  adopted  the  ten-hour  law 
despite  the  combined  opposition  of  mill 
owners  and  political  economists.  Although 
until  recently  Massachusetts  stood  alone 
in  reducing  factory  labor  to  ten  hours, 
official  investigation  in  1881  shows  that 
the  Massachusetts  factory  laborer  working 
over  twenty  hours  less  per  month  than  his 
fellows  of  adjoining  States,  received  about 
two  dollars  and  a half  more  wages  in  that 
time  than  they.  Experience  had  demon- 
strated the  same  fact  here  as  investigation 
had  shown  in  the  Departments  at  Wash- 
ington, viz.:  that  the  clerical  errors  made 
in  the  last  hour  of  the  day  occupied  more 
time  the  next  day  in  correction  than  the 
extra  hour  was  worth.  From  this  time  on 
events  are  familiar  to  us  all  and  need  no 
repetition  where  space  is  limited. 

In  England  the  first  factory  bill  was 
passed  in  Parliament  in  1802,  limiting  the 
labor  of  apprentices  to  twelve  hours  per 
day,  and  providing  for  their  instruction  in 
reading  and  writing.  But  as  the  possibili- 
ties of  t-he  application  of  steam  increased 
the  cries  of  the  poor  drudges  appealed 
deeper  to  philanthropic  minds.  The  fac- 
tory system  in  aggregating  labor  made  its 
baneful  effects  more  glaring.  In  1815  Sir 
Robert  Peel,  father  of  the  law  of  1802, 
again  came  to  the  front  and  proposed  an 
inquiry  “into  the  expediency  of  applying 
the  apprentice  act  to  children  of  every  de- 
scription.” For  four  years  the  contest 
waged,  and  in  1819  a law  was  passed  mak- 
ing such  extensions  partially  and  also  pro- 
hibiting the  employment  of  “ Britons,  who 
will  never  be  slaves,”  under  nine  years  of 
age,  and  limiting  all  under  sixteen  years  to 
twelve  hours  a day.  Several  amendments 
were  subsequently  adopted  strengthening 


its  provisions,  and  in  1825  a still  further 
reduction  was  made  in  certain  industries  to 
eleven  and  one  half  hours  a day. 

Every  reduction  in  working  hours  being 
marked  with  such  palpable  benefit  both  to 
the  toiler  and  community,  and  dismal 
economic  prophesies  so  quickly  exploded, 
in  1829  a “ Short-time  Committee”  was  or- 
ganized at  Manchester  and  the  struggle 
organized  systematically.  As  a consequence 
in  1831  a bill  was  introduced  proposing  a 
reduction  to  eleven  hours  a day,  and  rais- 
ing the  requisite  age  of  minors  in  factories 
to  eighteen  years.  It  was  only  partially 
successful,  being  finally  limited  to  the  cot- 
ton industry.  But  the  friends  of  the  move- 
ment were  not  inactive,  and  in  1833  another 
reduction  for  all  women  and  minors  in 
manufacturing  establishments  to  ten  hours 
was  passed.  The  result  was  that  the  bill 
was  extended  to  cover  all  textile  industries, 
except  silk,  upon  the  eleven-hours  basis  of 
the  1831  act  and  minors’  hours  reduced  to 
eight  with  two  hours’  schoolinga  day.  The 
agitation  grew  with  each  new  victory,  and 
in  1839  the  government  was  defeated  in 
opposing  the  extension  of  the  act  to  silk 
mills. 

From  1840  the  short-time  movement 
took  a wider  scope  than  textile  industries. 
The  moans  of  the  children  in  the  mines 
and  elsewhere  could  not  remain  unheard. 
In  1844  children’s  hours  were  reduced  to 
half-time  with  half  time  schooling;  but  the 
crowning  success  came  in  1847  in  the  adop- 
tion of  the  ten-hour  law,  thus,  within  thirty 
years,  reducing  the  hours  of  labor  for 
children,  under  thirteen,  from  sixteen  to 
five  hours  a day  ; and  for  women  and 
minors  between  thirteen  and  eighteen 
years  of  age  from  sixteen  to  ten  hours  a 
day.  So  great  was  the  benefit  derived  in 
the  elevation  socially  and  greater  industrial 
capacity  of  the  English  worker  that  in  1874, 
when  continental  competitors  were  work- 
ing from  eleven  to  fourteen  hours  a day, 
England  further  reduced  the  working  time 


to  nine  and  a half  hours  per  day.  England 
was  not  afraid  to  rest  her  manufacturing 
greatness  upon  better- fed  and  better-rested 
workers  as  against  the  ill-fed  and  degraded 
competitors  of  foreign  lands,  nor  will  she 
rest  here. 

In  March,  1856,  the  stonemasons  in  Aus- 
tralia adopted  the  eight-hour  system  with 
the  concurrence  of  their  employers,  and 
without  the  aid  of  legislation  ; the  men 
submitting  to  a reduction  of  14  per  cent. 
This  action  was  speedily  followed  by  the 
other  building  trades,  and  mechanics  and 
artisans  of  various  kinds  and  callings,  so 
that  within  one  month  the  new  system  was 
uniformly  adopted.  Since  then  the  21st  of 
April  has  been  annually  celebrated  there 
in  commemoration  of  this  event.  As  a 
result  the  fundamental  principle  of  the 
short-time  advocates — that  wages  rise  as 
hours  are  shortened — has  been  signally  in- 
dicated. for  wages  have  been  increased 
from  46  to  100  per  cent,  over  what  they 
were  before  the  adoption  of  the  eight- hour 
system. 

The  English  agitation  in  the  forties 
spread  to  France  and  Belgium,  and  has 
greatly  strengthened  the  trade-union  spirit, 
and  hours  of  labor  there  are  now  generally 
eleven  per  day. 

Such  very  briefly,  is  a sketch  of 
the  movement  for  emancipation  from 
exhaustive  toil,  which  began  with  the 
century  in  a moan,  and  has  already  as- 
sumed the  proportions  of  a vociferous  de- 
mand, and  a constantly  increasing  serried 
front.  Its  international  magnitude  pre- 
cludes the  possibility  of  danger  by  its  adop- 
tion here  for  the  increased  activity  thereby 
given  to  production,  as  in  Australia  and 
England,  and  the  greater  industrial 
capacity  of  the  workers  will  defy  competi- 
tion. 

The  short-time  movement  has  a phi- 
losophy as  well  as  a history.  Comte  and 
Spencer  have  both  elaborately  demon- 
strated that  the  growth  of  freedom  and  the 


increase  of  the  feeling  of  individual  worth 
have  been  feslilts  of’th xr  £yer  increasing 
domination'  of  ihVlustrialisftf  over  militancy, 
and  that  no  effort  of  .human  Caspars,  though 
they  might  fof  a time  turn  nations  intb  war 
and  mourning,  UasJ  been  effectual  in  stem- 
ming the  tide  of  pYog«\?ss.  that  proclaimed 
human  rights  as  above  things.  ' " The  old 
civilizations  looked  with  contempt  on  the 
proletariat  as  a servile  class.  "The  laws  of 
social  growth  show  that  in  entering  upon 
an  industrial  period  of  activity  the  so-called 
“working  class’’  constitutes  the  body  of 
society,  and  that  the  various  classes  which 
so  arrogantly  exalt  themselves  are  but  the 
organs  of  and  draw  their  vitality  from  the 
body  they  affect  to  despise.  Social  health, 
i.  e. , freedom  to  the  exercise  of  normal 
functions,  must  be  established  in  the  social 
body  to  radiate  outward  on  every  nerve 
and  thrill  every  organ  and  limb  to  have 
harmonious  action. 

In  history,  the  record  of  human  activity, 
we  find  the  silver  thread  which  has  through 
devious  ways  and  winding  labyrinths  ever 
led  on  to  the  higher  plane  man  enjoys  in 
the  present.  Warfare  of  conquest  first 
knit  and  cemented  into  the  social  mass 
the  divergent  interests  and  rival  claims  of 
tribes  and  peoples.  Under  conquest  arose 
the  institution  of  slavery  by  which  came 
accumulation  of  wealth  and  the  entailed 
habits  of  steady  application.  Then  fol- 
lowed warfare  of  defence  as  the  expression 
of  the  active  functions  of  man,  involving  a 
further  and  freer  growth  of  industry,  the 
mitigation  of  slavery  into  serfage,  an  aug- 
mentation of  the  sense  of  solidarity  and 
complexity  in  the  social  organization.  The 
communes  destroyed  feudalism  in  the  Mid- 
dle Ages  and  were  the  herald  of  the  Third 
Estate  and  free  labor,  wherein  warfare, 
aggressive  and  defensive,  was  to  be  gradu- 
ally replaced  by  warfare  upon  nature,  the 
industrial  phrase  of  social  activity,  a phrase 
definitely  entered  by  civilization  since  the 
epoch  of  1789. 


I 


8 


In  modern  iridustf’v  therefore,  we  may 
assert  is  to  be  found  the  key  to  the  social 
problems  of  the  day,  and  order  will  be 
seen  tt>  be  best  maintained  where  the  laws 
governing  the  normal  development  of  in- 
dustry as  U social  function  are  most  clearly 
seen,  ghd’  freest  scope  given.  The  pro- 
gress of  malt  "has  shown  an  unceasing 
struggle  between  militancy  and  industrial- 
ism, in  which  each  epoch  has  been  marked 
by  the  growth  of  the  latter.  Military  chief- 
tains ever  sought  by  the  use  of  the  sword 
to  found  a dynasty,  to  protect  a royal  policy 
or  to  secure  some  new  privilege,  but  they 
have  ever  been  powerless  to  prevent  a 
growing  diversification  of  industry,  and  in 
the  increased  freedom  demanded  for  its  dis- 
play coercive  restrictions  have  been  weak- 
ened. When  the  sword  necessarily  ceased 
to  represent  and  defend  social  interests,  in- 
dustrial chiefs  replaced  the  warriors.  But 
in  grasping  power  and  hedging  it  about 
with  privileges  unavailing  to  the  laborer, 
they  became  imbued  with  the  militant 
spirit  and  possessed  no  social  aim  ; hence, 
we  have  a new  feudalism  in  which  the 
“boss”  replaces  the  baronial  lord.  Be- 
cause of  this  long  warfare  between  the 
contending  spirits  of  Militancy  and  Indus- 
trialism have  arisen  the  revolutions  of  the 
past  few  centuries.  Militancy,  whether  in 
church,  or  state,  or  shop,  rests  upon  co- 
ercion, institutions,  vested  privileges;  In- 
dustrialism craves  peaceful  evolution,  co- 
operation, equal  opportunities.  The  first, 
for  this  reason,  seeks  stability  in  deep- 
rooted  systems  which  in  time  become  bar- 
riers to  progress ; the  second  looks  for- 
ward to  larger  liberty,  greater  opportunities 
and  more  cordial  co-operation. 

The  artisan  has  replaced  the  mailed 
knight  as  the  true  exponent  of  the  interests 
of  modern  civilization  ; instead  of  warlike 
depredations  upon  and  exploitation  of  our 
fellows,  modern  social  life  bestows  the 
chief  merit  upon  peaceful  warfare  and  ex- 
ploitation of  nature.  And  it  is  because 


the  line  of  progress  has  marked  this  course 
that  it  is  that  the  aspirations  of  the  toiler, 
of  the  great,  beating  popular  heart,  wed- 
ded to  the  paths  of  peace  as  the  philosophy 
of  history  demonstrates  ; the  cry  of  the  pro- 
ducers, half  articulate  though  it  may  often 
be  now  that  we  have  passed  the  theocratic 
and  monarchic  forms  of  society  into  an  in- 
dustrial age,  wherein  social  economics  con- 
stitute the  burning  questions  of  the  hour  ; — 
that  the  demand  for  less  hours  of  manual 
toil  becomes  indicative  of  social  progress 
and  a harbinger  of  a higher  civilization. 

Nor  in  this  discussion  need  we  confine 
ourselves  to  philosophical  generalizations, 
for  historical  events  characterizing  the 
movement  furnish  us  abundant  material  to 
substantiate  these  conclusions.  Instead  of, 
as  in  the  past,  looking  to  political  legisla- 
tion for  economic  results,  it  is  for  the 
higher  co-operative  social  unity  to  demand 
for  themselves  the  boon  which  the  spirit  of 
progress  has  unceasingly  whispered  to 
their  souls.  What  some  of  these  corrobo- 
rations are  may  be  briefly  stated  as  follows  : 

ECONOMICS  DEMAND  IT.— Not  the 
political  economy  of  the  day,  for  that  is 
but  an  art , not  a science , a set  of  formu- 
lated rules  of  existing  conditions  continu- 
ally fluctuating  and  changing,  but  a social 
economy,  which  sees  the  scientific  laws  by 
which  the  production  and  distribution  of 
wealth  should  be  pursued  to  secure  the 
largest  amount  of  happiness  and  comfort 
and  the  highest  development  of  all.  The 
social  province  is  one  wrested  from  nature, 
involving  relations  superimposed  upon 
natural  laws  and  recognizing  social  in- 
stincts of  which  man  in  a state  of  nature 
knows  nothing. 

Political  economy  presents  us  with  its 
natural  laws  as  of  old,  and  renews  the  de- 
ceptive promise  with  which  it  entered  the 
French  Revolution,  that  their  liberty  would 
make  earth  a paradise.  We  are  still  pre- 
sented with  the  old  formulas  which  never 
explained  anything,  but  merely  restated  in 


9 


I 


•general  and  vague  terms  the  facts  they 
were  supposed  to  analyze.  Its  laws  are 
but  the  record  of  observed  phenomena, 
and  they  will  remain  “laws”  only  so  long 
as  privilege  grants  charters  to  personal 
selfishness  to  exploit  the  weak.  Whenever 
the  prevailing  motives  which  determine 
men  shall  cease  to  be  operative,  that  mo- 
ment these  economic  laws  are  abrogated. 
It  formulates  existing  conditions,  and  its 
laws  of  supply  and  demand,  of  profits  and 
of  wages,  and  the  other  learned  exposi- 
tions made  by  these  economists,  are  mere 
resultant,  not  causative,  statements.  So- 
ciety has  again  and  again  been  based  on 
motives  for  action  radically  different  from 
those  of  to-day,  as  it  will  be  again.  Fred- 
eric Harrison  has  somewhere  compared 
our  Malthusian  economics  to  a pretended 
science  of  the  stomach  independent  of  the 
nervous  system  or  knowledge  of  the  cir- 
culation of  the  blood.  While  claiming  to 
be  governed  by  scientific  precision  they 
from  the  outset  raise  their  formulas  of 
modes  of  social  existence  into  abstract 
laws  governing  the  observed  phenomena. 
To  be  really  a science  economics  must  be 
based  upon  social  evolution  ar  d be  in  ac- 
cord with  social  progress. 

The  evolution  of  the  proletariat  from 
slavery  and  serfage  left  the  scale  of  wages 
at  the  subsistence  line.  It  is  the  cost  of 
living  rather  than  the  long  number  of  hours 
employed  which  has  ever  determined  the 
standard  of  remuneration  for  labor.  “The 
natural  and  necessary  rate  of  wages,”  of 
which  we  so  often  hear,  is  such  a rate  as 
will  supply,  to  use  the  words  of  Adam 
Smith,  “Not  only  the  commodities  that 
are  absolutely  indispensably  necessary  for 
the  support  of  life,  but  whatever  the  cus- 
tom of  the  country  renders  it  indecent  for 
creditable  people,  even  of  the  lowest  order, 
to  be  without.” 

The  cost  of  subsistence  for  an  average 
family  determines  the  rate  below  which 
wages  cannot  well  fall,  and  above  which 


the  enforced  idleness  of  about  six  per  cent, 
of  the  workers  in  all  manufacturing  nations 
tends  to  prevent  it  rising.  Women’s 
wages  are  always  lower,  because  custom 
has  not  made  others  generally  dependent 
upon  them  in  like  degree.  Wages  have 
been  and  will  be  regulated  by  existing  con- 
ditions of  living,  and  whatever  tends  to 
raise  “the  standard  of  decency  and  com- 
fort” will  inevitably  affect  the  standard  of 
wages.  Therefore,  the  great  problem  is 
not  so  much  to  increase  production  in  an 
overstocked  market  as  to  increase  con- 
sumption and  thus  enlarge  the  demand. 

In  1444  the  rate  of  wages  in  England 
varied  from  two  to  four  pence  a day,  but 
the  price  of  board  was  only  one  and  a half 
pence.  The  rise  of  free  cities,  the  constant 
disintegration  of  feudalism,  the  growing 
demand  for  skilled  labor,  with  the  rise  and 
growth  of  guilds,  tended  to  raise  the  stand- 
ard of  comfort.  Though  for  centuries 
constant  wars  and  legislative  interference 
did  much  to  check  this  upwatd  tendency, 
it  still  remains  true  that  real  and  nominal 
wages  have  advanced  as  interference 
ceased,  and  the  standard  of  comfort  was 
raised  and  engrafted  into  national  customs. 
Historically,  then,  long  hours  have  ever 
tended  to  lower  the  standard  of  living  and, 
consequently,  of  wagec.  It  is  but  a truism 
to  point  out  that  the  greater  the  wants  ol 
the  humblest  toiler  the  higher  the  standard 
below  which  custom  regards  it  indecent 
for  him  to  live,  the  greater  will  be  his  con- 
sumptive capacity ; and  that  with  this  in- 
crease there  must  necessarily  be  greater 
demand  for  production.  It  is  also  an  axio- 
matic truth  that  the  productive  power  ot 
man  is  ever  in  excess  of  his  consumptive 
power,  and  that  instead  of  regulating  pro- 
duction by  rules  which  limit  it  to  the  re- 
quirements of  artificially  repressed  con- 
sumption, it  should  be  the  duty  of  econo- 
mic science  to  increase  the  latter,  and 
thus  indefinitely  augment  production  and 
wealth,  and  secure  its  more  equitable  dis- 


IO 


tribution  by  continually  elevating  the  stand- 
ard of  comfort. 

Therefore,  we  may  conclude  that  a 
science  of  economics  would  see  in  the 
lessening  of  the  hours  of  labor  increased 
consumption,  a vaster  display  of  produc- 
tive activity,  a higher  intellectual  and 
moral  development  of  the  toiler,  a wider 
demand  for  the  more  artistic  products  'of 
our  factories,  an  immense  stimulus  afforded 
to  inventive  genius,  a more  thorough  or- 
ganization of  industrial  functions  and  an 
almost  fabulous  increase  of  national  pros- 
perity and  wealth  no  longer  based  on  in- 
dividual misery  and  want,  and  all  pro- 
ceeding pari  passu  with  higher  wages. 

HUMANITY  DEMANDS  IT— The  now 
general  struggle  for  a reduction  of  the 
hours  of  labor  is  one  for  a wider  civiliza- 
tian.  Civilization,  resting  upon  the  soli- 
darity of  human  welfare,  demands  a pros- 
perous and  contented  people,  with  in- 
creased needs  and  means  to  supply  them. 
To  refuse  aid  to  willing  hands,  to  cultivate 
our  idle  lands,  to  import  laborers  of  a race 
imbruted  by  centuries  of  oppression  and 
servility,  that  thereby  the  cost  of  living 
may  be  reduced  to  a far  lower  standard 
and  a lower  level  for  all  be  reached,  to  in- 
sist upon  long  hours  of  toil,  are  all  deadly 
blows  at  the  very  foundation  of  modem 
civilization,  for  it  debases  and  degrades 
humanity ; it  is  brutal  devolution  backward 
instead  of  social  evolution  forward.  A de- 
crease in  the  hours  of  labor  means  rest, 
and  rest  is  invariably  accompanied  by  in- 
creased wants.  Release  the  poor  drudge 
in  the  mine  or  the  factory  from  his  long 
hours  of  scantily  requited  toil,  and  give 
him  daily  hours  of  relaxation  and  leisure 
with  an  army  of  additional  toilers  and  you 
at  once  raise  him  in  the  social  scale.  Rest 
cultivates  ; exhaustive  drudgery  brutalizes. 

The  history  of  the  short-time  movement 
proves  that  every  reduction  of  the  hours 
of  labor  heretofore  made  has  elevated  not 
only  the  workers,  but  social  relations;  that 


increased  leisure  has  inevitably  introduced 
new  wants,  has  added  to  the  necessaries 
of  life,  and  has  improved  the  sanitary  con- 
dition of  the  people.  At  the  opening  of 
the  century,  when  the  factory  system  was 
forming,  Thorold  Rogers  estimates  the 
condition  of  the  factory  operatives  as  even 
lower  than  that  of  the  agricultural  laborer. 
In  1802,  as  we  have  seen,  Sir  Robert  Peel, 
one  of  the  largest  cotton  manufacturers  in 
England,  showed  his  statesmanship  in  in- 
troducing the  first  of  British  Factory  Acts. 
In  1816,  in  a speech,  he  made  use  of  these 
words : 

“The  hours  of  work  allowed  by  that  bill  being  fewer 
in  number  than  those  formerly  practiced,  a visible  im- 
provement in  the  health  and  general  appearance  of  the 
children  soon  became  evident,  and  since  the  complete 
operation  of  the  act  contagious  disorders  have  rarely 
occurred.’’ 

The  setting  apart  of  one  day  in  seven  for 
rest  wherein  no  man  ought  to  labor,  is  a 
prime  factor  in  the  growth  of  civilization. 
We  never  hear  the  charge  that  wage 
workers  receive  seven  days’  pay  for  six 
days’  work,  simply  because  conscien- 
tious conviction  has  become  hardened 
into  national  custom.  Yet  people  have  to 
live  on  the  Sabbath,  and  often  do  so 
better,  but  the  cost  of  sustenance — what 
will  support  a family,  not  what  equity  or 
social  decency  actually  requires — is  the 
test  by  which  the  week’s  standard  of  wages 
is  determined.  For  once  the  social  and 
the  political  economists  agree,  and  the 
question  arises,  Should  not  eight  hours  a 
day,  like  six  days  a week,  become  firmly 
fixed  as  a general  custom,  hardened  into 
national  habit  ? Are  not  the  interests  and 
welfare  of  humanity  identical  in  both 
cases  ? 

When  the  agricultural  laborers  in  cer- 
tain counties  of  England,  under  the  in- 
spiration of  Arch  and  his  colleagues,  se- 
cured additional  hours  of  rest,  but  a short 
period  was  needed  to  see  a marked  im- 
provement in  their  social  condition. 
Flowers  began  to  blossom  around  their 
cottage  walls,  dilapidated  fences  and 


II 


broken  gates  were  mended,  the  shrubbery 
more  neatly  tended  and  the  garden  more 
carefully  cultivated.  Inside  of  these  humble 
dwellings,  where  the  laborer  had  formerly 
entered  at  the  conclusion  of  a long  day’s 
work  only  to  throw  his  wearied  body  down 
to  senseless  slumber,  articles  of  comfort 
began  to  come  in;  a carpet  replaced  the 
scraped  sand  it  may  be  on  the  floor,  cur- 
tains to  the  windows  and  pictures  upon 
the  wall  added  a home  feeling  which  did 
much  to  awaken  the  dormant  manliness 
of  its  occupants.  With  increased  comforts 
came  increased  wants ; increased  wants 
and  a higher  vigor  brought  increased  cul- 
tivation, and,  hence,  a higher  standard  of 
wages  than  on  the  continent  where  the 
hours  of  labor  remained  from  twelve  to 
sixteen  per  day. 

Even  those  who  at  first  bitterly  de- 
nounced all  efforts  to  lessen  factory  toil  as 
revolutionary  and  destructive  of  “the nat- 
ural degrees  of  society,”  under  the  lessons 
of  experience  were  becoming  convinced 
that  less  hours  meant  not  only  higher 
wages,  but  improved  sanitary,  social  and 
moral  relations.  Official  reports  show 
that  within  a single  decade  it  was  rare  to 
find  an  operative  under  twenty  years  of  age 
unable  to  read  and  write.  Diseases  inci- 
dental to  factory  labor  disappeared,  and 
there  was  an  almost  enti  e absence  of  de- 
formity specific  to  that  work  ; wages  in- 
creased from  twelve  to  forty  per  cent.,  and 
with  the  rise  of  consumption  of  products 
the  production  of  textile  fabrics  largely  in- 
creased. From  1844  to  1858  the  commerce 
of  Great  Britain  doubled  and  increased 
more  than  twice  as  fast  as  the  population, 
which  before  this  it  hardly  kept  pace  with 
it.  From  1840  to  1870  the  proportion  of 
the  adult  population  who  could  read  and 
write  increased  thirty-five  per  cent,  faster 
than  the  population,  while  the  number  of 
children  attending  public  schools  increased 
several  hundred  per  cent.  With  increased 
knowledge  has  followed  lectures  on  science 


and  art  in  large  manufacturing  centres,  and 
public  gardens  and  museums  have  offered 
new  inducements  to  the  once  despised 
worker.  In  the  words  of  an  English 
writer,  “refinement  and  civilization  only 
take  their  date  from  the  possession  of  the 
privileges  which  restricted  labor  conferred 
upon  the  people.”  Such  prominent  oppo- 
nents in  Parliament  as  J.  A.  Roebuck,  Sir 
James  Graham,  Sir  Thomas  Bazley,  the 
late  and  most  vindictive  John  Bright,  and 
others,  all  lived  to  recant  their  dismal  fore- 
bodings. 

Here  history  and  philosophy  agree  that 
less  hours  of  toil  has  been  strictly  within 
the  lines  of  industrial  progress,  and  so  far 
from  being  an  aggressive  war  upon  social 
interests,  is  the  truest  exponent  of  the  de- 
mands of  modern  industrialism  for  a 
broader  civilization  and  a far  higher  hu- 
manity. 

LABOR-SAVING  MACHINERY  DE- 
MANDS IT.— “ Every  society,”  says  Proud- 
hon, “in  which  the  power  of  insurrection 
is  suppressed  is  a society  dead  to  progress; 
there  is  no  truth  of  history  better  proven.” 
In  economic  society  there  has  been  for 
over  a century,  since  the  inventions  of 
Arkwright  and  Watts,  an  insurrection 
going  on  against  division  of  labor  with 
unparalelled  results.  Machinery,  that  new 
Frankenstein  with  its  iron  nerves  and  mus- 
cles, has  rendered  labor  cheaper  by  aggre- 
gating it,  products  have  become  more 
abundant  and  wealth  more  diffused.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  but  that  since  our  civil 
war,  invention  has  far  out-stripped  the 
demand  for  human  labor,  and  hundreds  of 
thousands  have  had  to  crowd  into  other 
avocations  or  join  the  army  of  the  “super- 
fluous ” mendicants,  criminals  and  tramps. 
The  National  Labor  Bureau  (18S6)  presents 
us  with  the  following  statistics  illustrating 
this  displacement : 

“The  displacement  of  muscular  labor  by  machinery 
has  been,  in  recent  years:  In  agricultural  implements,  50 
percent.;  small  arms,  44  to  49 ; fire  brick,  40;  boots  and 
shoes,  50  to  80  ; brooms,  50;  saws,  60;  silk,  40 ; soap,  50 ; 
woolen  goods,  25  to  50;  metals  and  metalic  goods,  10  to  x; 


12 


carpets,  15  to  1 ; clothing,  6 to  1 ; hats,  9 to  1 ; cotton 
goods,  3 to  1 , mining,  6 to  1 ; paper,  15  to  1 ; wall  paper, 
100  to  1." 

“ Certainly,”  remarks  the  Commissioner, 
“to  the  men  individually  employed,  the 
displacement  has  been  severe  indeed.” 
But  political  economists  ignoring  individ- 
uals tells  us  through  their  distinguished 
exponent,  Roscher,  that : 

“It  is,  of  course,  possible  th^t  the  laborers  which  have 
been  thus  rendered  unnecessary  should  remain  idle  for 
the  future,  but  it  is  not  at  all  probable.  Civil  society  is 
not  ready  as  a rule  to  pension  off  the  laborer  rendered 
unnecessary  by  machines  with  their  full  previous  wages, 
and  s 1 the  laborers  are  impelled  either  by  necessity  or 
pride  to  seek  out  new  fields  of  work.” 

That  is,  to  compete  with  actual  workers 
at  lower  wages.  Again,  he  says  : 

“Machines  have  made  the  relations  between  master 
and  laborer  less  changeable  and  aibitrary,  and,  therefore, 
as  a rule,  morally  better,  in  that  they  form,  on  the  one 
hand,  a means  of  bringing  troublesome  laboreis  to  terms, 
and  on  the  other  compel  the  capitalist  running  even  in 
dull  times,  if  they  do  not  want  to  see  their  capital  in- 
vested in  machines  completely  idle,  or,  indeed,  perish  by 
rust,***.  If  machines,  then,  up  to  the  present  time 
have  diminished  the  toil  of  the  human  race  but  little  or 
not  at  all , the  reason  does  not  lie  in  some  necessity  of  na- 
ture, but  in  the  social  imperfections  of  man.” 

Exactly  ; and  because  cf  the  growing 
conviction  in  this  sage  conclusion  has 
arisen  the  ever-growing  and  wider-spread- 
ing demand  for  lessening  the  number  of 
hours  of  toil  in  spite  of  the  “dismal 
science  ” which  but  tabulates  “ the  social 
imperfection  of  man,”  and  thereby  lessen- 
ing the  number  of  the  superfluous,  increas- 
ing both  consumptive  and  productive 
power,  thus  raising  the  standard  of  com- 
fort and  wages.  Yet  the  above  from 
Roscher  is  all  the  crumbs  of  comfort  the 
“learned  professors”  have  to  offer  the 
toiler. 

Where  division  had  separated  labor, 
machinery  unites  the  different  functions, 
but  often  by  rendering  the  human  machine 
superfluous.  Division  of  labor  isolated 
workmen  and  created  a demand  for  par- 
cellaire  labor  ; machinery  increases  pro- 
duction by  substituting  muscles  of  steel, 
but  in  the  displacement  of  workers  injures 
production  by  curtailing  consumption. 
The  one  increases  the  demand  for  labor, 
even  while  depreciating  its  value,  for  its 


market  is  limited ; the  other  lessens  the 
demand  by  displacing  it,  and  find  the  mar- 
ket over-stocked.  “Necessity  is  the 
mother  of  invention,”  and  this  has  been 
strikingly  illustrated  in  many  a protracted 
local  “strike”  for  wages,  where  lawless 
necessity  has  invoked  genius  to  furnish 
more  docile  and  tireless  producers  of 
wealth,  for  which  society  proffers  a pen- 
sion, not  seeing  that  under-consumption  is 
augmented  ! 

Machinery  is  the  symbol  of  human  ge- 
nius— its  incarnation  in  material  form — for 
the  machine  is  but  a more  complicated 
tool,  the  mighty  weapon  with  which  nature 
is  assailed  for  man’s  benefit ; and,  however 
great  the  destruction,  however  piercing 
the  cries  of  its  victims,  it  has  become  a 
fact,  an  indispensable  factor  in  social  prog- 
ress, and  cannot  be  stopped.  To  oppose 
it  is  to  resist  the  increase  of  production ; 
to  demand  a cessation  of  the  increase  of 
wealth  wrung  from  reluctant  nature;  to 
assert  that  waste  rather  than  economy  in 
labor  should  be  our  object ; to  insist  that 
the  privilege  of  toiling  for  another  upon 
his  own  terms  is  the  chief  end  of  the  wage- 
worker’s existence  ; to  picture  a millennium 
wherein  labor  is  not  saved  by  the  use  of 
improved  appliances  and  tools,  and  pro- 
duction shall  be  limited  to  the  primitive 
capacity  of  brute  force.  The  true  remedy 
lies  in  the  increase  of  consumption  rather 
than  in  formulating  “natural  laws”  based 
on  “the  social  imperfection  of  man,”  that 
thereby  an  indefinite  increase  of  produc- 
tion would  find  ready  demand.  Between 
the  upper  and  nether  mill-stone  of  division 
of  labor  and  machinery — isolation  and 
concentration — victims  must  necessarily 
fall. 

The  demand  for  new  labor,  following 
increased  production,  is  for  unskilled 
not  for  artisans,  for  machine  tenders,  and 
the  inducement,  instead  of  being  new 
wants  and  a higher  standard  of  comfort 
and  decency,  is  that  of  “ necessity  or  pride.” 


i3 


But,  again,  the  remedy  can  only  be  sought 
in  the  removal  of  the  inequitable  conditions 
which  restrict  industrial  activity,  and  the 
most  peaceful,  that  which  is  most  in  accord 
with  the  lines  of  progress,  that  which  will 
tend  to  raise  the  race  to  a higher  plane  and 
prepare  them  for  a harmonious  industrial 
evolution  out  of  the  slough  of  poverty — in 
a word,  the  most  practical  in  plan  and  far- 
reaching  in  result  is  the  inauguration  of  the 
short-time  movement. 

No  one  who  has  lived  in  or  carefully  in- 
spected a factory  town  but  what  has  been 
struck  with  the  displacement  of  labor,  and 
its  effect  upon  the  workman’s  family.  Re- 
duced to  an  inferior  position  by  machinery 
subdividing  trades,  restricted  to  a narrower 
scope  of  activity,  where  his  skill  is  only 
valued  in  the  routine  task  daily  set  before 
him,  and  with  wages  lowered  by  competi- 
tion with  iron  and  steel  muscles,  he  is 
obliged  to  eke  out  a paltry  living  by  com- 
peting also  with  his  own  flesh  and  blood; 
to  witness  the  lash  of  stern  necessity 
driving  his  wife  to  premature  age  and  nerv- 
ous exhaustion  by  double  toil  as  mill-hand 
and  house-keeper,  and  his  children  often 
robbed  of  childhood  to  garner  wherewith 
he  may  barely  subsist ; instead  of  a protec- 
tor to  his  fading  wife  and  the  outraged 
childhood  of  his  offspring,  to  be  condemned 
to  be  dependent  upon  them  for  what  is 
often,  necessarily,  but  an  animal  existence, 
and  in  his  despair  wonder  if  God  still 
liveth ! “Necessity”  they  know,  but 
“pride”  is  too  often  extinguished  in  the 
struggle.  But  I forbear,  for  this  is  human 
misery,  and  political  economy  is  only  con- 
cerned in  national  wealth  and  average 
prosperity. 

We  have  seen  that  through  division  ot 
labor  and  machinery  production  has  been 
largely  augmented,  but  that,  according  to 
political  economists,  labor  has  no  command 
over  the  conditions  which  limit  its  free 
action.  This  brings  us  to  our  last  point. 


BUSINESS  INTERESTS  DEMAND 
IT. — Should  not  these  changed  conditions 
of  our  industrial  system,  ar  sing  from  the 
rapid  development  of  mechanical  appliance 
beyond  consumptive  capacity,  be  labor- 
saving  to  the  producer  as  well  as  to  society  ? 
Even  political  economists  recognize  the 
evil,  but  their  rules  prevent  a departure 
from  well-worn  ruts.  Social  economists 
propose  to  meet  it  by  such  efforts  as  will 
not  only  preserve  but  increase  what  com- 
fort has  heretofore  rendered  it  indecent  to 
be  without.  For  just  as  much  as  product- 
ive capacity  is  limited  by  restricted  con- 
sumption, just  so  far  are  the  possibilities 
of  what  may  well  be  a fabulous  increase  in 
business  retarded.  To  do  this  less  hours 
of  daily  toil  are  imperative.  The  lessen- 
ing of  the  hours  of  labor  means  less  idle 
hands,  more  persons  profitably  employed, 
and,  hence,  augmented  consumption  of 
labor  products.  By  increasing  the  number 
of  employed  an  increased  demand  will 
augment  supply,  overproduction  checked, 
the  home  market  enlarged,  and  with  every 
added  demand  for  labor  wages  rise. 

In  the  manufacture  of  textile  fabrics  one 
girl  can  do  to-day  what  two  generations 
ago  would  have  required  the  united  labor 
of  ioo  persons.  It  is  true  great  social  ad- 
vantage has  been  derived  from  cheapen- 
ing the  product,  but  to  those  forced  out 
of  work  and  penniless  even  cheap  goods 
are  often  unattainable.  The  boot  and  shoe 
industry,  to  take  one  example,  shows  that 
sixty  years  ago  shoemaking  was  exclu- 
sively limited  to  men,  whose  average  pro- 
duction was  200  pairs  a year.  Forty  years 
ago  women  and  children  were  employed, 
and  the  use  of  machinery  increased  the 
capacity  of  each  hand  to  450  pairs  a year. 
Thirty  years  ago  it  had  increased  to  579 
pairs,  and  ten  years  ago  to  2,598  pairs.  In 
connection  with  this  the  following  statistics 
from  the  Massachusetts  State  Census  are 
very  suggestive  : 


14 


BOOT  AND  SHOE  INDUSTRY. 


1845 

1855 

1865 

Establishments . 
Capital  invested 
Value  stock  . . 

206 

$10,322,599 

36,418,845 

No.  of  hands  . 

45.877 

77,827 

52,821 

Value  goods  . . 

$*4,799*  *4° 

$37,5oi.725 

56,113,987 

No.  of  pairs  . . 

20,696,312 

45,066,828 

31,870,581 

1875 

1885 

Establishments  . . 

1,461 

2,366 

Capital  invested 

$18,692,864 

#34,314.o°° 

Value  stock  .... 

54.976,504 

70,178,000 

No.  of  hands  . . . 

48,090 

64,658 

Vidue  goods  .... 

89.375,729 

114,739,000 

No.  of  pairs  .... 

59,762,866 

The  census  for  1885  has  not  yet  been 
published,  but  the  above  figures  for  the 
last  decade  are  given  by  the  Chief  of  the 
Bureau  as  “very  nearly  correct,”  except 
the  number  of  pairs  which  had  not  been 
tabulated.  In  1845  the  number  of  hands 
employed,  45,877,  produced  20,896,312 
pairs  ; in  1875  the  number  of  hands  em- 
ployed, 48,090,  produced  59,762,866  pairs. 
In  thirty  years  the  total  production  had 
about  trebled,  while  the  number  of  per- 
sons employed  is  but  slightly  in  excess  of 
that  of  1845,  and  far  below  the  number  em- 
ployed in  1855.  Again,  the  number  em- 
ployed in  1885  is  less  than  that  of  thirty 
years  before.  From  1865  to  1885  establish- 
ments increased  from  206  to  2,366.  In- 
vestigation of  the  table  given  shows  that 
establishments  have  increased  eleven-fold; 
capital  invested,  1865  to  1885,  more  than 
three  fold  ; value  of  stock  used  in  same 
period  nearly  doubled  ; value  of  goods 
made  in  same  period  more  than  doubled  ; 
yet  the  number  of  persons  employed  has 
but  slightly  increased.  It  will  also  be  seen 
that  the  number  of  pairs  made  has  not  in- 
creased in  any  like  ratio,  though  if  the 
census  could  give  the  number  of  poorly- 
clad  feet  the  exhibit  might  be  more  start- 
ling. The  conquest  of  man  over  nature  is 
constantly  augmenting  in  results,  but 
capital  increases  faster  than  business  re- 
turns ; but  the  question  whether  the  people 


are  in  like  measure  benefited  leads  to 
serious  thought. 

Are  peace  and  contentment  in  the 
worker’s  humble  “home”  more  promptly 
realized  ? Is  their  inalienable  right  to  life 
and  the  pursuit  of  happiness  easier  grati- 
fied. Are  the  pangs  of  hunger  more  readily 
alleviated,  or  the  hunger  of  the  mind  in 
aught  increased  ? Are  the  necessities  of 
life  readier  attained,  or  do  privation  and 
poverty  remain,  and  still  more  distinctly 
marked,  as  before  this  vast  increase  in 
“national  wealth  and  prosperity?”  Has 
not  what  improvement  exists  in  our  age  in 
the  material  condition  of  the  toiler  directly 
followed  from  the  additional  leisure  ac- 
quired in  the  reduction  of  the  hours  our 
fathers  were  employed,  rather  than  from 
any  other  one  source  whatever  ? 

In  the  boot  and  shoe  industry  produc- 
tion has  increased,  capital  swelled  by  ab- 
sorption of  profits,  but  where  is  the  shoe- 
maker?  The  trade  is  parceled  out  into 
sixty-four  subdivisions,  necessary  to  the 
production  of  one^  shoe,  and  the  poor 
drudge  employed,  while  only  the  sixty- 
fourth  of  a shoemaker,  finds  his  speed  in- 
creased and  his  nervous  vitality  more 
quickly  exhausted  by  the  requirements  of 
the  machine  of  which  he  has  become  but 
an  adjunct.  Well  has  W.  G.  Moody,  in 
commenting  on  the  old-time  shoemaker, 
said:  “He  is  literally  ‘strapped;’  he  has 
lost  his  ‘last,’  his  ‘awl’  is  gone,  and  he 
must  henceforth  ‘ peg  ’ away  at  something 
else.”  But  wherever  he  may  go,  whatever 
trade  he  may  seek  to  crawl  into,  he  will 
find  the  tireless  metal  muscles  there  before 
him  ! By  increasing  opportunities  we  not 
only  create  new  wants  and  the  means  to 
gratify  them,  but  in  the  almost  endless 
possibilities  thus  given  to  production,  the 
wheels  of  business  would  revolve  more 
rapidly  and  without  grinding  human  lives 
to  augment  what  a near-sighted  policy 
alone  can  regard  as  prosperity. 

The  great  industrial  revolution  from  the 


15 


militant  age  which  we  are  passing  through, 
the  change  of  human  activity  from  warlike 
to  industrial  pursuits,  which  constitutes 
the  essential  characteristics  of  our  civiliza- 
tion and  the  sole  guarantee  of  its  peaceful 
evolution,  and  the  social  welfare  of  the 
great  body  politic  which  forms  the  founda- 
tion of  a true  democratic  state,  alike  urge 
the  necessity  of  this  world-wide  move- 
ment The  determination  upon  the  part  of 
the  organized  workers  to  mainly  depend 
on  their  own  efforts  is  a spark  from  the 
altar  of  progress.  Often  blind  and  inco- 
herent in  its  cries,  industry  at  last  recog- 
nizes that  the  movement  is  a social  and 
economic  one,  and  turning  from  the  false 
political  guides  who  have  so  long  betrayed 
it,  it  rises  in  its  might,  but  clothed  in  gar- 
ments of  peace,  and  asserts  its  unalterable 
determination  to  achieve  for  humanity  the 


upward  and  onward  social  development 
which  the  history  and  the  philosophy  of 
the  short-time  day  alike  pledge  as  a mile- 
stone in  social  progress.  With  all  the 
faith,  but  without  the  cynicism,  of  Carlyle, 
awakened  industry  begins  to  translate  its 
yearnings  into  articulate  speech,  and  cries  : 
“There  must  be  a new  world  if  there  is  to 
be  any  world  at  all.  That  human  things 
in  our  Europe  can  ever  return  to  the  old 
sorry  routine,  and  proceed  with  any  steadi- 
ness or  continuance  there — this  small  hope 
is  not  now  a tenable  one.  These  days  of 
universal  death  must  be  days  of  universal 
new  birth,  if  the  ruin  is  not  to  be  total  and 
final ! It  is  a time  to  make  the  dullest 
man  consider  and  ask  himself,  Whence  he 
came?  Whither  he  is  bound?  A verita- 
ble New  Era  to  the  foolish  as  well  as  to 
the  wise.” 


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